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The Author

Between classes in middle school, I would be coming up with the most embarrassing song lyrics and poems, then one day in Grade 11 English I was given the assignment to write a short story.

Never one for deadlines, I left it to the last minute. On the night before it was due I came up with the very first draft of A Ferret Named Phil. The title seemed obvious to me – Mem Fox had taken every other animal under the sun – and the name “Phil” seemed a no-brainer. A Ferret Named Phil is a triumphant story about bullying, self-esteem and resilience.

I thought it was a cute story, my teacher Mrs Eton was pleased enough and my class seemed to like it. So it was placed at the bottom of a shelf where it remained for years.

Skip ahead a little while and I rediscover some old pages of “A Ferret Named Phil”. I was getting bored with my work, maybe I could give publishing it a shot.

So I started reaching out to people to see if they were interested in the story, as it had themes that I believed contained important messages for children. I also loved how it was told in completely rhyming verse – it was a fun challenge for me to write.

I had no idea where to begin but I’ve always firmly believed that if you commit to something absolutely positively 100% – you can achieve it.

Trawling through internet articles – reading as many books as I could on the subject, I started to gain knowledge about the publishing industry and how to go about publishing a book. I hired an old friend I met at kindergarten to do the illustrations, James Moore, and we’d meet every week in a cafe to discuss the artwork.

A few months later it was GO TIME! I went to bank after bank after bank looking for a loan – but it was the same thing every time. No assets, no solid income, no loan!. “Fair enough”, I thought. So I started a crowd-funding campaign and began getting in touch with almost everyone I had ever come in contact with.